Astronauts relocate Soyuz MS-18 spacecraft to ISS 0:42
(CNN) -
The International Space Station is about to become a movie set.
Veteran Russian cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov, actress Yulia Peresild and film producer Klim Shipenko traveled to the International Space Station on Tuesday.
Peresild and Shipenko will shoot segments for the movie "Challenge," the first feature film shot in space.
The film will tell the story of a surgeon who has to operate on a sick cosmonaut in space because his medical condition prevents him from returning to Earth for treatment.
The three space travelers took off aboard a Soyuz MS-19 spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 4:55 a.m. ET on Tuesday.
The speedy Soyuz brought them to the space station around 8:22 a.m., despite some communication problems that led Shkaplerov to take manual control shortly before docking.
The current crew of the space station includes European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Pesquet, NASA astronauts Mark Vande Hei, Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Aki Hoshide, and cosmonauts from Roscosmos Oleg Novitskiy and Pyotr Dubrov.
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Live coverage of these events was available on NASA's television channel and website.
Day of emotions in the International Space Station 0:56
"The launch will mark the expansion of business opportunities in space to include the making of feature films," NASA said in a statement.
The film is being made under a commercial agreement between Roscosmos and Moscow-based media entities Channel One and the Yellow, Black and White studio, the agency said.
A short stay
Peresild and Shipenko's stay, which is their first time visiting the space station, will be brief, as they will spend 12 days filming before returning to Earth on October 16.
On their return trip they will be joined by Novitskiy.
Shkaplerov will remain on the space station and return to Earth in March with Vande Hei and Dubrov on the Soyuz MS-19 spacecraft.
When Vande Hei lands after his 355 consecutive days on the space station, he will have completed the longest space flight by an astronaut in American history, according to NASA.
The background on the space station
Some movies have been shot aboard the space station, including a 2002 IMAX documentary narrated by Tom Cruise.
"Apogee of Fear," a 2012 science fiction film that lasts about eight minutes, was also shot in space by businessman and space tourist Richard Garriott, the son of an astronaut.
Tom Cruise and director Doug Liman revealed in 2020 that they were working together on a film that would be shot in space, with collaboration from NASA.
The project is being developed in collaboration with Elon Musk's SpaceX.
Reports have suggested that Cruise's stay on the space station could also occur in October, but no definitive date for its launch has been shared, although he did chat with the civilian crew of SpaceX Inspiration 4 during his recent space trip.
Russia announces that it will also shoot film in space 1:02
However, Russia will become the first country to shoot a feature film in space.
Peresild and Shipenko, well known in Russia, were selected after the country's space agency Roscosmos opened a competition for candidates in November.
Peresild has appeared in several Russian movies and television series, while Shipenko's was one of the highest grossing films in Russia.
The two civilians underwent rigorous training before their space travel.
Together with the alternates, the actor and director prepared by doing spin and vibration support tests, zero-gravity training flights, and parachute training, all of which were covered by Channel One.
A scientific project
The crew have practiced photography and filming and have used the equipment they will interact with on the space station.
Other cosmonauts on board, including Novitskiy, will assist and act as part of the film crew, as their resources are more limited in the space environment.
Astronauts' schedules on the space station are already well choreographed so they can work on experiments and take care of necessary maintenance tasks and other priorities.
NASA uses augmented reality to repair the International Space Station
The film "is part of a large-scale scientific and educational project, which also includes a series of documentaries to be shot about companies in the space and rocket industry and specialists involved in the manufacture of launch vehicles, spacecraft. and terrestrial space infrastructure. The project will become a clear example that space flight is gradually becoming accessible not only for professionals, but also for an increasingly wide range of stakeholders, "according to Roscosmos.
Jackie Wattles, Olga Pavlova, and Sara Spary contributed to this report.
CinemaInternational Space StationTom Cruise